1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus with a print medium stacking unit for stacking multiple sheets of print media.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus prints a desired image by: forming an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive medium using an exposing unit, such as laser scanning unit, in response to a digital image signal; developing a toner image by supplying a toner to the electrostatic latent image; transferring the toner image onto a print medium; and fixing the toner image on the print medium by applying heat and pressure to the toner image.
Image forming apparatuses are classified into a dry type and a wet type according to a state of a toner and carrier used. The wet-type dry image forming apparatuses are also classified into two types: an apparatus having a one-phase developing device, and an apparatus having a two-phase developing device.
The one-phase developing device forms an image by supplying only a toner to the electrostatic latent image, while the two-phase developing device forms an image by supplying a carrier mixed with toner particles to the electrostatic latent image.
With regard to the one-phase developing device, after the toner is applied onto a photosensitive medium to develop a toner image, the toner left on a surface of the photosensitive medium is removed by a cleaning blade, and is recovered by a recovery unit to recycle the toner.
With regard to the two-phase developing device, the carrier is not supplied to the photosensitive medium, though it is still reused. However, after only toner particles are supplied onto the photosensitive medium to develop the toner image, the toner particles left on a surface of the photosensitive medium are removed by a cleaning blade, and recovered by a recovery unit to recycle the toner.
Multifunction peripherals combining both scanning and printing operations have been widely utilized. A multi-function peripheral includes a scanning unit and a printing unit. The scanning unit is disposed on an upper portion of the printing unit, and scans a document and inputs an image of the document to the printing unit. The printing unit receives a digital image signal corresponding to the image of the document inputted from the scanning unit, and prints an image corresponding to the image onto a print medium.
However, due to the multi-functional quality of the peripheral, this apparatus has a large size. Thus, to reduce the size of the apparatus, a size of the print medium stacking unit must be decreased since the size of the main components for scanning/printing are difficult to reduce.